Dear Editor:
One of the first things I saw upon returning to campus was that someone or something had destroyed many trees around the amphitheater. This may not outrage most people, but I am not most people.
Those trees were beautiful, not to mention a fantastic backdrop for anything happening on stage. The trees were more appealing than the empty space left behind and certainly more appealing than their sad stumps.
I am tired of seeing the destruction of nature. What did those trees ever do to deserve to be murdered as they were, over the summer when no one was around to complain about it?
All they did was live, grow, and help the ungrateful bipeds to breathe. Is that a crime worthy of the punishment of death?
Last year we lost many other trees around McCord Hall to make way for the new dorm and I was not happy about that either. Apparently the people in charge will not be happy until everything on campus is dead and manufactured.
When will the carnage end? Is it not enough that Johnson City and the university turned a blind eye to the tragic murdering of the beech trees that occurred last year?
Those historic trees were stolen from us. Living history was destroyed in the name of development.
Those trees were living beings. The trees that were so thoughtlessly destroyed early that Saturday morning (when no one was looking) were priceless. Irreplaceable beings have been destroyed and for money, nothing more than colored paper that we assign value to. Something has been stolen from all of us and anyone who will ever travel through that intersection.
When I drive by that empty lot, it re-affirms my belief that the world is being overrun by thieves and tyrants.
What is sacred when a man can destroy something that does not belong to him, or anyone else? You think that you own that land? Did you really believe that you owned those trees?
Curses on you and your lot. I have no love for paper worshippers. They are already wealthy and yet they steal from everyone to get more. This is what is wrong with this country.
I will not forget this scandalous act and I will boycott whatever ugly building that is placed on that lot. I would advise anyone who loves nature, history or beauty to do the same.
I realize many people do not care about trees whether they are 15 years old or 400. This has become alarmingly apparent over recent months.
I care and I am tired of seeing the beauty of my surroundings lessened by cold-hearted, money-hungry gangsters.
We must learn to respect life whether on campus or down the street, or a legacy of greed and death will be passed on to the next generation. The future is at stake, and a tree has no voice to raise in opposition, the silence it emits speaks for itself.
J. A. Ball

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